Goatwhore
Carving Out The Eyes of God
Metal Blade
40:32 – 10 Tracks
New Goatwhore! Say it again… GOATWHORE! This release is a bit more straightforward than I remember from them… Pretty good, thrashy, dark, a bit melodic in parts with some cool guitar solos… yet it still has all of the elements of what you love about Goatwhore… black-ish groovy death metal. And of course… it’s Evil!!
Chris Caffery
House of Insanity
Face the Music
67:54 – 13 Tracks
Amazing how Chris Caffery and Jon Oliva can keep putting out solo albums, but yet, there’s still no new Savatage OR TSO album!? WTF? I guess though, we do get all this extra new good stuff from Chris and Jon apart from their “main” bands. This is more of the usual from Caffery… some good catchy plain ‘ol Metal. He’s not the best singer, but hey, it’s his band, he does just about everything, so I guess I can cut him some slack!
Alestorm
Black Sails at Midnight
Napalm
46:11 – 10 Tracks
Scottish Viking Metal? That’s a pretty specific genre if you ask me… this is what’s on the CD Sleeve. It is a bit folksy, power metal, but also pretty heavy. I’m not sure if this would be for everyone though. Reminds me a little bit of the lower decks of the Titanic! You know in that one scene in the movie where they dance around below decks… anyways, take that but mix it with some pretty cool metal… add a singalong chorus here and there, and it’s new Alestorm! The more you listen however, the more it grows on you with it’s catchiness!
The Trophy
The Gift of Life
Frontiers
43:58 – 11 Tracks
This is a general hard rock type of band. Good sounding songs, it just doesn’t really fit the Mosh Pit. It’s too bad there’s not really an outlet for this kind of stuff, I mean, they are good hard rock songs, but too “underground” for the more mainstream rock stations in town, and really not heavy enough for the metal shows.
Suicide Silence
Wake Up (single)
No Time To Bleed
3:33 – 1 Track
New track… they sure made the touring rounds over the last year, kicking everyone’s ass…. This song is probably one we saw them play, it’s abrasive, heavy, catchy and brutal… looking forward to more stuff!
Sworn Enemy
Total World Domination
Century Media
32:57 – 10 Tracks
Dammmmmmmit! These guys were in town a week or two ago and I missed it… they played the Annex on a Monday…and with the pledge drive, I just couldn’t make it down. Listening to this new CD… wow. It’s heavier than anything they’ve done… just all out brutal and pissed off hardcore metal! Heck it’s not even that much hardcore anymore. Catchy, heavy, just wow…
Coalesce
Ox
Relapse
29:47 – 14 Tracks
You know, I’ve never really been able to pigeon-hole the subgenre of these guys, so, how about I google it and see what I come up with…. their myspace page says punk/hardcore/garage… I can see that… their wikipedia page says they are “mathcore” I can see that too… To me they are kind of an “everything-core” it’s a bit abrasive, it’s heavy, thrashy, yes, math-y… but if you had to pick one, I guess it’d just be Hardcore. It is unique however.
9MM Solution
The Dream Is Dead
Rock Ridge
30:46 – 10 Tracks
Another Wisconsin metal band does good! Luna Mortis, Lazarus AD… and now 9MM Solution… all recent national label signings for Wi. Metal bands! This is a pretty straightforward metal album from these guys. Vocals are just the right amount of abrasive, music is catchy and heavy! It’ll be a pleasure to play this!
1349
Revelations of the Black Flame
Candlelight
44:57 – 9 Tracks
One of the more classic souding black metal bands… These guys have been respected for sometime for pretty much following the path of the original Norwegian black metal. This is pretty raw, evil and brutal. There are some tracks that are just all out noise, or quiet interludey stuff… I’m not a big fan of that, but the actual “songs” are worth the wait… or wait, what’s that? a skip or search button?
Devildriver
Pray For Villains
Roadrunner
56:18 – 13 Tracks
I’ve been a fan of Devildriver since day one… they just have heavy, intense catchy songs… and each album steps it up a notch… Pray for Villains is no change in that pattern! Just all out heavy, catchy and a wall of sound. I would say these guys are way up there in the history of the New Wave of American Metal… you got your Lamb of God, Chimaira… Devildriver… Ever seen or been in a pit at a Devildriver show? yeah… it’s that good… hah